With new car come new challenges to make late passes at Talladega

Don Coble

Monday

Oct 21, 2013 at 11:37 PM

TALLADEGA, Ala. - Jamie McMurray's unusual success in Sunday's Camping World RV Sales 500 was the product of NASCAR's Generation-6 race car and timing. Unlike previous races at the Talladega Superspeedway known for lead changes, dramatic finishes and multi-car crashes, Sunday's race was mainly absent of what makes the track so unique.

The only lane that had any speed was the one closest to the outside wall. With everyone content to stay in line, McMurray didn't have to fend off a challenge at the finish line after the crash brought out the caution flag on the final lap.

But even if the race stayed green, nobody is sure if the new car could have produced any final-lap theater.

"Well, I ran the last 20 laps, never looked at the windshield. I looked at the rear view mirror the whole time," McMurray said after winning for the first time since 2010.

"And the other thing I noticed about this package is it's easy to get a big run, but the car will stall out if you don't have another car behind you helping. The package, I think it races really well. I felt like a lot of racing today, but when we all got single file, I didn't really think the 88 [Earnhardt] could get me if the 14 [Austin Dillon] wasn't pushing him."

Dillon was one of the three cars that crashed on the final lap, and that left Earnhardt without any help - or hope.

"Nothing was going anywhere, so it didn't make sense to jump down there too early and get shuffled to the back," Kyle Busch said after finishing fifth.

There was a pair of two-car accidents - a far cry from the multi-car pileups that are commonplace at Talladega. And unlike every other Chase for the Championship since 2004, none of the playoff drivers were involved in any of the trouble.

In short, Talladega wasn't the wild card everyone feared.

McMurray's 15 laps led at the finish were the most since Tony Stewart led the final 17 circuits on Oct. 5, 2009.

McMurray's win came in the first year of the newly-designed Gen-6 car. Stewart's late-race domination came in the first full season of the Generation-5 car - better known as the Car of Tomorrow.

While new cars take a little time to figure out, race teams generally are quick studies. After Stewart won without a challenge in 2008, seven of the next eight races at Talladega were decided in the final two laps.

McMurray is sure everyone else will work on a way to create a workable middle and lower groove by the time they return next year.

"I was really surprised that they weren't able to put something together and make more of a run. Yeah, I was shocked by that," he said.

"When you're the guy that's 10th or 15th in line, you're getting out of the throttle 50 percent entering [Turns] 1 and 3. I don't know why. You get big runs and you have to let out the throttle, and the further back you are the more you have to get out."

Earnhardt wound up second - his fourth second-place finish of the year with no wins - while Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was third.

Chase leaders Jimmie Johnson (finished 12th) and Matt Kenseth (20th) struggled after getting stuck deep in traffic. That suggested another of Talladega's trademarks - big runs from the back of the pack in the final laps - may be a thing of the past, too.

"I really thought that the bottom would form. The flip side is that you get that big run, and if you make the commitment to go to the bottom and you can't get 10 good cars to make the commitment with you, you go backwards," McMurray said. "And so if those guys don't go with you, then you lose 10 or 12 spots, and the risk isn't worth the reward. I thought guys would take a bigger chance at the end."

Everyone's attitude will change next Sunday when they move to the half-mile track at Martinsville Speedway where a driver's temperament, not the race car, will be the most important factor.

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